Pope Francis last week announced that Pope Paul VI will be canonized as a saint later this year, and later joked to priests in Rome that he and Pope Benedict are on the "waiting list."

"Paul VI will be a saint this year," Francis told parish priests in Rome last week, according to Vatican News.

"There are two Bishops of Rome who are already saints," he added, referring to the recently canonized St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II. Although over 80 popes have been recognized as saints, many remain active "causes," including John Paul I and Pius IX.

"And [Pope emeritus] Benedict [XVI] and I are on the waiting list," the pope said jokingly. "Pray for us!"

Francis went on to praise Paul VI as a "great Pope," and a "tireless Apostle," in his Homily for the Closing Mass of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family in 2014.

Once Paul VI is canonized, he will be the third pope to be made a saint by Pope Francis.

"Before the advent of a secularized and hostile society, he could hold fast, with farsightedness and wisdom – and at times alone – to the helm of the barque of Peter, while never losing his joy and his trust in the Lord," Francis added.

Paul VI "truly 'rendered to God what is God's' by devoting his whole life to the 'sacred, solemn and grave task of continuing in history and extending on earth the mission of Christ,' loving the Church and leading her so that she might be 'a loving Mother of the whole human family and at the same time the minister of its salvation.'"